(Distributed 04/30/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – After a semester studying and working with LSU AgCenter faculty, nine visiting scholars from Zamorano Pan American Agricultural School in Honduras are returning home with some valuable practical experience under their belts.

(Distributed 04/29/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Those in the process of building a new home or making improvements to an existing one received valuable information from staff of the LSU AgCenter LaHouse Home and Landscape Resource Center at a recent open house.

(Distributed 04/24/14) ROBERT, La. – Whether petting an alligator, planting native wetland plants or sampling macronvertebrates, Girl Scouts visiting Shell’s Robert Training & Conference Center got an up-close lesson on the diversity of animals and plant life found in Louisiana wetlands as part of the LSU AgCenter’s 4-H Youth Wetlands Week.

(Distributed 04/29/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – For food entrepreneurs, getting products off store shelves is just as important as getting them there in the first place. Marketing is often key to accomplishing that, but many people starting small food businesses are unsure of how to tackle that task.

(Distributed 04/28/14) WINNSBORO, La. – Recent high winds could cause lodging problems for the state’s 175,000 acres of wheat, but otherwise the crop is doing well after coming through a cold, wet early spring, according to LSU AgCenter wheat specialist Josh Lofton.

(Distributed 04/24/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – The Building Green Cities Baton Rouge organization has scheduled a day-long workshop on May 12 to discuss water issues in the parish.

(Distributed 04/25/14) Senorita Rosalita cleome and its new cousin, Senorita Blanca, are great plants for flowers from late spring through frost. Also known as spider flower because the projecting stamens of the flowers give these plants a spidery look, this plant can take summer's heat and is drought-tolerant.

(Distributed 04/23/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Dinah Schuster has been named senior director of development for agriculture at LSU. In this newly created LSU Foundation position, she will develop a comprehensive fundraising plan for the LSU AgCenter and College of Agriculture.

(Distributed 04/22/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Transforming home kitchen recipes into products that can be sold in stores involves more science than some people may realize. Fortunately for LSU AgCenter Food Incubator tenants, food scientist Luis Espinoza is on hand to help them do everything from keeping better records to making a product all natural.

(Distributed 04/17/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – 4-H’ers from across the state competed in the state 4-H Commodity Ambassador contests on April 15 on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. In all, 116 4-H’ers competed in the Chicken, Egg, Seafood, Sugar and Turkey Ambassador contests.

(Distributed 04/17/14) Many coreopsis are available for our Louisiana landscapes. Coreopsis, sometimes called tickseed, are herbaceous perennial flowers. We sometimes treat these as annuals and sometimes as perennials. The larger-flowered varieties are usually most popular with home gardeners.

(Distributed 04/17/14) HAMMOND, La. – Buddleia, known by most home gardeners as butterfly bush, is becoming an increasingly popular plant in the home landscape. Mostly because this perennial is highly favored by butterflies as a nectar plant.

(Distributed 04/17/14) BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU College of Agriculture’s Poultry Judging Team swept the competition at the USPOULTRY National Poultry Judging Contest April 2-4 on the LSU campus. LSU’s team competed against nine other universities.

(Distributed 04/17/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Two LSU College of Agriculture students were among the nearly 100 college students from across the country who celebrated National Ag Day (March 25) with agriculture and political leaders in Washington, D.C.

(Distributed 04/25/14) HAMMOND, La. – We all crave color in our landscapes. Beds full of annual and perennial flowering plants are often the primary source of landscape color, but they require a lot of work to keep them looking nice.

(Distributed 04/17/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter LaHouse Home and Landscape Resource Center will host its Spring Saturday Open House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 26. Attendees can learn how to lower utility bills and repair costs by keeping homes cool, dry and termite-protected through the spring and summer.

(Distributed 04/16/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Panama's relationship with Louisiana could be key to economic and educational development in the Central American country, according to Mario Jaramillo, Panamanian ambassador to the United States.

(Distributed 04/16/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Americans are consuming less soda. Soda consumption has been declining over the past few years and is at the lowest it’s been since the mid-1990s.

(Distributed 04/15/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter has announced that after eight years in West Monroe, the 4-H and FFA State Horse Show and Contest will be held July 8-12, 2014, at the Burton Complex in Lake Charles.

(Distributed 04/15/14) CLINTON, La. – The LSU AgCenter Bob R. Jones-Idlewild Research Station near Clinton will hold a wildlife field day on May 3.

(Distributed 04/11/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Bags of lavender tea, cranberries and red onion skins simmered together to make a natural red dye. Students in Judy Myhand’s Food FUNdamentals class in the LSU College of Agriculture were preparing to dye eggs using items found around the kitchen to make the dyes.

(Distributed 04/14/14) ALEXANDRIA, La. – LSU AgCenter weed scientists confirmed that farmers will now have to contend with another herbicide-resistant weed, Italian ryegrass.

(Distributed 04/14/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Warmer weather brings many things to our landscapes – including fire ants.

(Distributed 04/11/14) Dragon Wing and BabyWing begonias, along with many other series and varieties of begonias, can and should be considered for the warm-season, shady landscape. Dragon Wing and BabyWing have some of the best genetics available.

(Distributed 04/11/14) HAMMOND, La. – Azalea blooms were outstanding this spring, even though the flowers were about two to three weeks later than normal and the cold weather this winter limited the early bloom. In the end, however, many plants bloomed in unison beginning in mid-March. Flowers are continuing now, and bloom on some varieties will stretch through May.

(Distributed 04/11/14) HAMMOND, La. – The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station will hold an open house from 9 a.m. to noon on May 2.

(Distributed 04/10/14) NEW ORLEANS – Residents in the Crescent Region interested in urban gardening are invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new LSU AgCenter vegetable plot next door to the New Orleans Convention Center on the corner of Tchoupitoulas and Henderson St. on April 23 at 11 a.m.

(Distributed 04/09/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – In a trend mirroring much of the Midsouth region, Louisiana farmers are expected to plant more soybeans than they did last year, according to LSU AgCenter soybean specialist Ronnie Levy. He expects growers to plant 1.3 million acres as compared to 1.1 million acres in 2013.

(Distributed 04/08/14) BATON ROUGE, La – People can expect to hear loud noises outside throughout eastern Louisiana because this is the year for the adult emergence of three species of Magicicada, commonly called 13-year cicadas.

(Distributed 04/08/14) ST. GABRIEL, La. – Through the work of LSU AgCenter's Sustainable Bioproducts Initiative (SUBI), biofuels and other products could offer unique, economically beneficial opportunities for Louisiana's agriculture industry.

(Distributed 04/08/14) WINNSBORO, La. – Recent heavy rains – as much as 6 to 8 inches – in corn-producing areas of Louisiana have flooded fields that already have been planted.

(Distributed 04/04/14) Little Ruby alternanthera was named a LSU AgCenter Louisiana Super Plant in 2013. It is one of the newer varieties of alternanthera – also known as joseph’s coat.

(Distributed 04/04/14) HAMMOND, La. – In the continuing program of identifying Louisiana Super Plants, the LSU AgCenter has identified the Kauai series torenia as a Louisiana Super Plant for spring 2014. These are improved from some of the older seeded varieties and have been proven great in landscape trials the last three years at the LSU AgCenter.

(Distributed 04/04/14) CROWLEY, La. – LSU AgCenter weed scientist Eric Webster continued his work in 2013 on dormant hybrids and red rice outcrossing by starting a new project using several different herbicides to eliminate undesired plants in a field.

(Distributed 04/04/14) CROWLEY, La. – The 2014-16 USA Rice Leadership class visited the south Louisiana rice-growing region on April 3, including the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station.

(Distributed 04/04/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Increasing international cooperation in research has been the goal of the LSU AgCenter for many years, and during the past three years scientists from around the world have been able to conduct research in labs here through the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program.

(Distributed 04/02/14) BATON ROUGE, La. – Chris Clark, LSU AgCenter plant pathologist, has been elected a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society in recognition of his contributions to managing major sweet potato diseases.

(Distributed 04/02/14) NEW ORLEANS – The LSU AgCenter will present AgMagic on the River, an interactive, visually stimulating learning experience, at Docville Farm in Violet on May 14-17.

(Distributed 04/01/14) NEW ORLEANS – The LSU AgCenter in partnership with the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University will work with local stakeholders to identify behavioral health needs of Orleans Parish residents and share best practices for improving community behavioral health.

(Distributed 04/01/14) DELCAMBRE, La. – The LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant held a series of meetings March 25-26 for crabbers and shrimpers with experts to advise them how to save money, to work safer and to comply with state and federal regulations.